Facing History and Yourself

Hatreds Are Almost Always Convenient.

Hatreds Are Almost Always Convenient.

In times of crisis, it has always been relatively easy to place
the blame for “our” problems on “them”—the people who are not like “us.” During
such times Jews and other minorities have been vulnerable not for what they actually
were like, what they actually did, or even what they actually believed but for
what “we” imagined “they” were like, did, or believed. And rulers, generals, preachers, rabble-rousers,
and disgruntled neighbors have long known how easy it is to get a crowd going simply
by shouting “the Jews are to blame!”